Hello, everyone. I guess I should introduce myself first. My name is Matt Nawal, but some of you out there might know me online as Darkwalker. I’m one of the new editors here at 6P, so I figured I’d drop my Battle Roads report off here for you all to check out.
While talking with some of the guys at league regarding my recent outing at this past weekend’s Battle Roads in Mansfield, Ohio this song came up. Enjoy.
http://youtu.be/bUuuu5MJF70
Anyway, on to the report:
If you haven’t guessed by now, I played Reshiram/Emboar. I’ve been testing with it on PTCGO for a couple of weeks and really like how it matches up to what’s being played in the format currently. I’ll post the list I’m currently using below the report as well.
pokebeach.comRd 1 vs. Chance N. playing Stage 1’s
Stage 1’s is an interesting deck to deal with. It typically gets an early lead, then starts to struggle against Reshiram/Emboar once their Zoroark’s are dealt with. The game got down to 1 Prize on each side, but all he was left with were multiple Yanmega to my Reshirams and Ability Emboar. I finished the game by attacking with “Good Boar” that was pulled active with Catcher.
1-0
Rd 2 vs. Michael “Hoolon” Collins playing ZPST w/ Yanmega
This wasn’t much of a game as Michael struggled to get anything out, while I got a fairly good start. He failed to find a supporter with Pokégear on 3 separate occasions and scooped once I was set up and taking prizes off of anything he could send up.
2-0
Rd 3 vs Jackson I. playing Yanmega/Mew/Cincinno and friends (YMCA)
This was my turn to draw dead. I set up quickly with an ability Emboar and Reshiram T2. Unfortunately, my Cleffa was prized and after a PONT gave me nothing to work with I ended up in draw/pass mode. Jackson started the game by using Mew Prime to See Off Zoroark, and was able to 1 or 2HKO everything I was able to set up (without energy). The exception to this was his Bouffalant using Revenge for 20 three turns in a row to KO my Vulpix. Next card? Ninetales, of course.
2-1
Rd 4 vs AJ Schumacher playing Yanmega/Mew/Cincinno and different friends
pokebeach.comThis was one of the rare occasions AJ was actually able to play, since he’s a PTO now. It’s always enjoyable playing against him. He starts the game off a little slower, but manages to See Off Muk fairly early. My deck manages to set up quickly and pick off prize after prize while he tries to stall with Muk and Catcher.
Each time I was able to respond with either a Switch or enough energy to retreat and also attack. I even used a Max Potion in the middle to completely heal up my ability Boar that he kept trying to KO or stall in the Active Spot.
3-1
Rd 5 vs ? playing Typholoshion/Reshiram with Kingdra?
My memory is really foggy about this. I’m not even sure what I played against this round, but I remember my next round’s opponent saying they were glad I won because the deck I faced off against was a bad match up for him.
4-1
Rd 6 vs Jake H. playing Gothitelle/Mew
I knew Jake has been playing Gothitelle for that last couple of weeks, so I prepared myself for Trainer lock. Both of us set up slowly, I made sure I didn’t take a prize to activate his Twins until I was ready for it. He started the game by Seeing Off Jumpluff with Mew, but lacked the Rainbow to use the attacks. Once I had set up well enough, I used Catcher on his only Gothirita that sat on his bench for a few turns and KO’d it.
He managed to set up Reuniclus and got a Zekrom or two out, but I was able to 1HKO them with “Bad Boar.” My ability Boar was pulled active a couple times this game, but without the Trainer lock I was able to return it to the bench easily with Switch. After the game I found out 2-of his 3 Gothita along with 2-of his Twins were in his prizes.
5-1
I finished Swiss in 2nd place. The rest of the Top 4 were Zekrom (6-0), YMCA (5-1), and what I would later find out to be TyRam (5-1).
pokebeach.comTop 4 vs Jacob R. playing YMCA (same list from Rd 3)
Game one starts with Jacob using Mew to See Off Zoroark. I’m able to set up this time, but I have to be careful of his Mew’s that can 1HKO my Bad Boars. I think the list they were using was lacking PlusPower as he struggled with my Reshirams and my 150 HP ability Boars. I made a couple of mistakes during this match, but neither ended up costing me. The game came down to 2 Prizes each when I was able to take a lead and not have a return KO follow. My last prize followed a turn or two later.
Game two starts with Jacob using Mew to See Off again. Unfortunately for him his Zoroark is either prized or in his hand from the Copycat he used on his first turn. He chose Cleffa instead. Without Zoroark, the deck lacks the big hitter the trade with my huge HP piggies. Jacob is a very good player, though, and manages to take 4 Prizes to my two when time is called. I manage another prize on the +2 turn, but it’s not enough.
Sudden Death is not in a Mew based deck’s favor. Having to waste a turn to See Off just doesn’t cut it. I win the flip to see who goes first. I also have effectively a perfect hand and Blue Flare on my turn 2 with an ability Emboar out and enough energy. 6-1
This game was fun and laid back; with lots of pig, bacon, and pork jokes tossed about.
Top 2 vs Jon Rice playing Typhlosion/Reshiram
We both start off with mulligans and I’m thinking this might be a mirror match based on what I saw. Lucky for me I was wrong. TyRam is a really good deck. It’s very consistent, hard hitting, and sets up pretty quickly. Emboar is a horrible match up for it, though. TyRam has a general damage cap of about 130 with PlusPower, which just doesn’t cut it against either Emboar.
Having to hold PlusPower for Emboar also hand-cuffs TyRam in the Reshiram exchange since theirs are damaged via Afterburner while mine are at max HP going in. Game one was one sided. I got everything out by turn 4, while he managed a bench full of basics and a Ninetales. He scooped to save time.
Game 2 was more of a game, but still lopsided in my favor. He managed to get up Ninetales early and then two Typhlosion while we traded Reshirams. I then started using Cather to bring up and 1HKO Typhlosions with Bad Boar one after another. He did manage to attack with the second Typhlosion (getting rid of my DCE), but I had another already in hand along with Max Potion to further seal his fate. 7-1!
I get a super shiny Poké Ball!
My son, Joey, also managed a win with a silly Krookodile deck that he pretty much built himself. It murders the Senior.dek around here (ZPST), but it does also have its weak spots. My daughter, Megan, ended up 2nd in Juniors with Reshiboar as well. She went 3-1, only losing to a Senior since both lower age groups were mixed together.
Here’s my deck, which I don’t mind releasing since I won’t be able to attend Regionals due to work. Have fun with it!
Reshiram/Emboar
|
Pokémon – 16 4 Tepig BLW Promo BW07 2 Emboar BLW 20 1 Ninetales HS/CL |
Trainers – 32 4 Pokémon Collector 3 Junk Arm |
Energy – 12 9 R |
I belee… I belee… I belee… That’s all folks!
Good article, and smart man running 4 Boar and DCEs, though I’m looking at your energy count REALLY sideways. 12? I’ve had trouble cutting below 16 in my build! I might give your list some testing; there’s a lot of Typhlosion here.
With all the energy recovery in the deck it seems like a whole lot more than 9 fire, especially late in the game. Decks that run a larger Ninetales line would benefit from a higher Fire count, as you really tend to rely on Ninetales to draw in to the deck. By setting the deck up to run without needing Ninetales, the energy count could be reduced down to where I have it.
great job, and it’s great to see a list of a winning Reshiboar. keep it up!
How did having no twins and only a 1-1 ninetales line work for you? I mean obviously you won, but I have seen quite a few lists that play at least a 2-2 even 3-3 ninetales. Also did you ever find yourself wanting or needing twins?
Originally, I had no Ninetales in the list at all and used all Draw Supporters instead. Through playing I found that the Ninetales helped out consistently more than the extra two supporters. As for it only being a 1-1 line, typically it was not a priority to remove for my opponent because it’s not a threat. Emboar might as well have a target on him with how much attention it draws when it hits the board. As for the Twins, while I’m a fan of the card, I never felt I needed to search out two specific cards from the deck to get set up. Twins works better in lists that run far more one-ofs in it than this.
Have you tested a build with higher ninetales and twins? Im just curious to see what build you had better testing results with.
1-1 is all you need.
I’ve used as many as 3-3 Ninetales in the past, but often the extra Vulpix and Ninetales just sit in my hand not used. On occasions when I played more than one Ninetales on the bench three things happened:
1) My bench felt cramped.
2) By drawing 7 cards per turn (6 from double Roast Reveal plus start of turn) I quickly had to stop using Roast Reveal. If you aren’t using Ninetales for drawing extra cards, then it’s not doing anything.
3) More often than not Ninetales ended up being an easy prize for my opponent, since it only has 90 HP.
I’ve never really tested with Twins in this build as I find it’s aggressive enough to stay either in the lead or even throughout a match. Twins also is typically used in decks that need a specific non-searchable card out of the deck to function. ReshiBoar really doesn’t have anything like that. While Twins can help you in coming back from an early deficit, relying on it can also cause you to not take early prizes when you should.
Nice work, and nice list! Thanks.
Awesome, now I have a list to test against for my deck!
Great man! I just got an emerging powers pack from my sister for my b-day and got me 2 catcher in one pack, shes buying my packs from now on.
Wow. O.o
Annoting orange: Orange: ” Hey Reshiboar ” Reshiboar: “What” Annoying orange: “catcher” AHHHH
A BR-winning Reshiboar! You’ve just given a fellow Reshiboar player some hope after all. :D
A query though: 9 Fires? I run from 12-14 and it still doesn’t feel enough. O.o What’s your thought on that?
When I first built this I simply converted the Typhlosion (I played Typhlosion in the grinder at Worlds) lines I was using into an Emboar line. I used 13 Fire in Tyram, which felt perfect for the deck. Bad Boar works best with DCE, so I took out 2 Fire for 2 DCE originally. I found I was usually playing 1 DCE on a Reshiram at some point, so I added in a 3rd. That left me with 10 Fire and 3 DCE, which is probably the correct amount for the deck. My going down to 9 Fire was mostly to fit in more energy recovery as opposed to actual Energy. 2 Energy Retrieval and 9 Fire worked better than 1 Retrieval and 10 Fire. I didn’t want to drop down the Fire any lower than 9 for fear of simply not having fire to use early on in the game, even though I would really like a 3rd Energy Retrieval in the list.
All of your attackers in the deck can get by with 1 DCE and 2 Fire, so long as you can continue to replace those 2 Fire every turn. With enough recovery you can continually attack every turn with as little as 3 Energy on the field at a time. By reducing the reliance on Ninetales by using Cheren and PONT in higher amounts I also found always needing a Fire in hand to get going was eliminated.
Taking the above two points in to account, I found I needed less and less Fire to have the deck perform as intended. Something to note, though, is that I rarely use Inferno Fandango to simply place extra Fire on benched Pokemon. I typically hold 1 DCE and at least 1 Fire in my hand if possible. Doing this let me react to unexpected things happening (abilty Emboar being Catchered, for example) without really putting a strain on my energy flow that I needed to attack with. The only exceptions were just before I refreshed my hand with PONT or Eeeeeek, or if I had plenty of energy recovery in hand and was playing against something that I knew did not play Judge. Even then, I rarely had more than 3-4 Energy out on the field at any given time, DCE included.
A very detailed reply, I thank you for that. I would love to further discuss Reshiboar with you, being a BR-winner with a deck most would shy away from. I definitely will take Reshiboar to BRs and maybe even Cities/Regionals, my other deck being a newly-made ZPST that I have no real confidence in yet.
How does your list perform against Trainer Lock? I teched Black Belt for for Goth, but against MewLock (with lists running things from Mismagius and Yanmega), I can’t keep up with the constant Sludge Drags and sniping. Also, what are your main weak points in mirrors?I hope you don’t mind me asking all these, I really am interested in Reshiboar a whole lot ever since I started PTCG in August after 2 years off from the game.
Gothitelle is generally not an issue. You need to aim at getting both ” Bad” Boar out to consecutively OHKO Gothitelle if they get a Goth out turn 2 and active. That early on you can usually just 2HKO the first goth with Reshiram, though since they rarely if ever get both Reuiclus and Goth active on turn 2. Without trainer lock, Goth falls quickly. Black Belt is not needed against Goth at all.
Mew/Muk/Vileplume can be a bigger issue. The trainer lock here is safely on the bench where you can’t get at it. Mew/Vileplume is bit slow to set up normally. Typically you will have to hit heads on a feww confusion flips to win this match. being careful with your energy placements and retreating in key spots are also important here. Reshiram plays a bigger role in this match as Outrage can be used more often. Also, if they have any issues getting Vileplume out early (before turn 4 or 5), then it may be too late to stop Emboar from just overrunning the deck with Reshiram.
Hmm I guess you’re spot on regarding confusion flips, though I rarely take such chances. How do you think RDL can be fitted in here at the removal of a Bad Boar+Black Belt? I’m considering it since I normally only run one Bad Boar anyways.
And you mention about holding Energies in hand until they are needed. Do you then frequent using Ability Boar for attacks sometimes? I’ve had to succumb to that sometimes when all I have was 4 Energy for an attack or retreat and no 2nd attacker charged on the bench.
Late game I can usually generate 6 Energy returned back to my hand with a Fisherman and either an Energy Retrieval or a Junk Arm for the Retrieval. If that isn’t possible and Switch isn’t an option, then attacking for 80 is certainly an option. I would make sure you have a back up ability Boar building though in the case that the one you are attacking with goes down. RDL is interesting simply from the extra prize standpoint, but it requires a bit more work to get out. RDL also needs Lighting Energy, which puts a strain on the energy count in the deck. If RDL were to be added to the deck I would heavily consider just adding in 2 Lighting instead of switching any of the current energy, although with only 1 Bad Boar you can probably get away with playing 2 DCE. So, 9-10 Fire, 2 DCE, and 2 Lightning sounds about right for the energy line. I would also think about including Twins into the deck to help search out RDL pieces. From a pure consistency standpoint 4-2-2/2 Emboar is still in my mind the best option for any Emboar based deck.
Thanks for all the insight, gives much more info on how to run such an overlook deck in my opinion. :)
my brother has used RDL since his first build and it has never failed him, and hey, an out of nowhere three prizes off of a mewtwo is amazing, if there is enough room run a 2-2 line,but he’d also need one more lightning energy. lastly incase you were wondering his energy line is two lightning, eight fire, three DCE, and one rescue
My brother (who always wins with his reshiboar) only plays nine energies and no typhlosuon, but never have I seen him run dry on energy. his secret, (don’t tell him I spilled the beans) is high counts of cilan and fisherman.
I like this deck as it is very solid against Gothitelle, but it really struggles against a ZPST that has any kind of decent start. It also has no answer to SEL/Vileplume/Reuniclus.
Nevertheless I’m always happy to see a fellow Poke-Parent win a tournament, so nice job and keep up the good work.